It is known in at least one instance to provide a seat-back mounted TV in a passenger vehicle. See, for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,021 to Dixon. In that disclosure, the TV screen is normally covered by a form of tray table in stored position and is not available for viewing unless the tray is swung down to serving position. The top of the tray, which is the face facing the screen when the tray is closed, is compartmented for the purpose of containing a plurality of hand-held, battery-operated games. The patented system is deficient in many respects, including use of a cathode ray tube as a TV screen, whereas such tube has not yet been adapted to the space limitations imposed by the seat back environment. The patent does not address power requirements, the use of disk drives and the like. The cathode ray tube (CRT) cannot be physically accommodated in the passenger seat behind the tray because the seat cushion is four to five inches thick and a nine inch CRT is at least eight to ten inches deep.
According to the present invention, the foregoing disadvantages have been eliminated. The screen is always available for viewing; that is, it does not depend upon dropping a tray table to serving position. On the other hand, when the screen unit is hinged rearwardly and downwardly, its opposite face serves as a tray. The arm rest in the seat next to the rear of the seat having the screen is equipped with a plurality of controls for the screen. The screen may be either a liquid-crystal display or gas plasma type. Among the capabilities of the system are menu selection, use of a joy stick, a mouse, central power, disk drives and the like, all of which will become apparent as a preferred embodiment of the invention is disclosed in detail herein.